by Maggie Dunne and Cindy Dunne
For those of us in the fields of advocacy, women’s rights
and human rights, the September 11, 2012 report and the September 18, 2012 presentation by Human Rights expert James Anaya to the United Nations on the state of indigenous affairs are big news.
Why? Because, in
substance, Anaya finds that although the Obama Administration has started the
process of reconciliation, the country has not met minimal human rights standards
that we demand of other nations. The
report calls for more comprehensive action, and predicts that our continuing
failure to address the inequities facing our country’s first peoples puts us at
risk of loosing moral credibility on a global scale.
As the report indicates, awareness is a huge obstacle. By
way of representative example, although President Obama signed an apology to
native communities in 2010, it was buried in a defense appropriations act and
went by unpublicized. In fact, we (here at
LCE) were watching it at the time, and unless you subscribed to either Indian Country Today, the Indian
Law Resource Center or you followed our Facebook Page, then you probably did not
know that the apology (which was filled with legal disclaimers) even happened. Unfortunately, so
far, the same can be said about Anaya’s report to the UN, which has
gone unreported by most American syndicated papers and online publications, trumped by
gossip grabbing headlines and political speculation about the November
elections.
Anaya’s report notes pervasive ignorance that extends from the
American public at large all the way through the government. He states that government officials
demonstrate an “inadequate understanding and awareness… about tribal realities
or even about the content of relevant laws and policies themselves.” (70). Addressing recent legislation which was designed to
support and preserve native communities, Anaya states that the legislation “represents
some acknowledgment of the historical debt acquired towards the country’s first
peoples and partially fulfills historical treaty commitments,” but the laws are
“complicated,” “confusing,” “bureaucratic” and “fail to go so far as to
ultimately resolve persistent, deep-seated problems.” (71)
UN Rapporteur Anaya concludes that the history of misdealing and the
harm inflicted on indigenous communities is “still unresolved” and “[u]nless
genuine movement is made toward resolving these pending matters, the place of
indigenous peoples within the US will continue to be an unstable, disadvantaged
and inequitable one, and the country’s moral standing will suffer.” Among many other things, Anaya suggests the implementation of “cross-cultural
reconciliation aimed at closing the latent wounds and building just and
equitable conditions… consistent with the United States’ human rights
obligations.” (73).
So there you have it: the USA, the great moral mouthpiece
for truth and justice for all has stuck its figurative head in the sand and in
the view of Human Rights expert James Anaya, the USA’s continued inaction puts it at risk of loosing moral credibility on a global scale.
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| An unpaved road on the Pine Ridge Reservation |
Just in case you do not know, the vast majority of our
tribal nations are not riding high on casino profits and tribal members daily face
prejudice, discrimination and worse. They are traumatized by historic and
continuing government failures. Their women are being raped and abused
primarily by non-native men at an appalling rate that appears to indicate that
native women are viewed as easy prey. Education
and health disparities are extensive, life spans on some reservations are
unacceptably low and infant mortality rates on some reservations are as high as
the traditional “developing world.”
As Anaya points out, our nation’s first peoples have made
substantial contributions to the USA’s culture, military and collective
heritage, and are integral part of our collective identity.
Yet, they are a
minority; those on and off reservations total only 1.7% of population ~ not
enough to matter in today’s political climate, which responds to influence of
voter numbers and money.
So what can you do? You can read Anaya's Report. Sure it is
50 pages long, but it is a relatively quick read and it is important. In fact,
it should be mandatory reading for every High School History class as well as
every college Anthropology, Peace and Conflict, Politics, Economics and/or Sociology
class in the nation. Make sure your
schools and teachers read it, assign it and discuss it. Share the report with your friends. Get the word out there. Awareness matters.
The UN report is a wake up call for America ~ we need to invest in our own communities and turn our critical lens inward for a while or else we risk loosing credibility when we make demands of others based on human rights and moral imperatives. As 2011
Nobel Peace Prize winner Leyham Gbowee recently said at the
Millennium Campus Conference in Boston: "Sustainable development starts at
home."
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Addendum: From the Report of James Anaya, excerpt of a letter from a student on the Rosebud Reservation:
“Life here is very hand to mouth. Out here, we don’t have the finer things. You get what you get and you don’t throw a fit. And I’m going to be honest with you, sometimes I don’t eat. I’ve never told anyone this before, not even my mom, but I don’t eat sometimes because I feel bad about making my mom buy food that I know is expensive. And you know what? Life is hard enough for my mom, so I will probably never tell her. My parents have enough to worry about. I do not know what you can do, but try your very best to help us. Please help us. We can do this. Yes we can!”
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| Roadside view of a home on the Pine Ridge Reservation |
LEARN. CARE. ACT.
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